Who thinks of this stuff?

I'll blame January for its ability to suck the creativity out of me as surely as the vacuum took up the pine needles.

But the truth is, I'm not sure I'd ever come up with most (cough: any) of the clever ideas assembled on the aggregator website, TwistedSifter.com. See - even its name is clever.

My college-age daughter forwarded this post, http://twistedsifter.com/2013/01/50-life-hacks-to-simplify-your-world. I think she considered it amusing, and it will fall to me to convince her that no, these ideas are seriously brilliant. (Well, OK, some ARE pretty funny.)

Some highlights: An old CD spindle case turned into a lunchbox for your bagel sandwich ... step-by-step photos for folding a fitted sheet ... place a rubber band across the top of a paint can on which to wipe your brush (instead of the rim) ...using a can opener to defeat the enemy called plastic blister packs ... forming crisp taco shell bowls by wedging them into an upside-down muffin pan ... stacking your clothes vertically in a drawer so you can see a glimpse of each of them ... using a bread tab to hold your spot on a roll of tape ... keep kids from falling out of bed by tucking a pool noodle inside the fitted sheet ... lighting a piece of spaghetti to get down into pillar candles ...using a folded sticky note to catch dust when you're drilling into a wall. And more.

One of my favorite hacks was using a dust pan to fill a container that doesn't fit in the sink (see accompanying photo). The Ninja Fold must be seen to be appreciated.

Now, I suspect that some of you may be rolling your eyes at this point, amazed that I am amazed by these hacks. You've been doing that for years ... your mother(father) did this ... your grandmother(father) did this. To which I can only say, Congratulations!

And hurray. I like the idea of living in a world populated with clever people who look beyond the bread bag when it comes to repurposing that seemingly single-use plastic tab. It gives me hope that someone has taken pop tabs and doubled the capacity of their closets.

In other words, there ARE new ideas. Everything HASN'T already been done. In the jaded semi-darkness of January, this is very good to know.